BERGAMO
Dati Generali
Periodo di attività
Syllabus
Obiettivi Formativi
At the end of the course, students are expected to acquire a sound knowledge of the evolution of American postmodern fiction from the 1960s to the present. They will also be able to identify the movement’s major authors and stylistic tendencies in relation to the social and cultural tensions of the post-World War II era. Students will also become familiar with the formal features of the literary experiments with different genres that characterize postmodern writing, from the early emphasis on metafiction to the role of the graphic novel in recent debates about intermediality and transmediality.
Prerequisiti
Prerequisites: Students are eligible to take the third-year exam only after having passed the second-year exams in English Language and Anglo-American Literature (or English Literature).
Metodi didattici
Lectures.
Verifica Apprendimento
The final exam will consist of a 90-minute written test divided into three parts. The first part includes short questions on the primary and secondary sources studied during the course. In the second part, students will be required to translate into Italian and contextualize a passage selected from one of the texts included in the reading list. In the third part, students will write a short essay discussing selected topics covered in the course.
A. Excellent/Outstanding (30 - 30 e lode): excellent knowledge of all of the contents of the course. Excellent ability to analyze the texts and to contextualize them in an appropriate way. The student uses the academic writing register/style with appropriate linguistic terminologies. The translation is excellent.
B. Very good (29 to 27): very good knowledge of all of the contents of the course. Very good ability to analyze the texts and to contextualize them in an appropriate way. The translation is formally correct, and hardly contains imprecisions.
C. Good (26-24): Good knowledge of the contents of the course. Adequate ability to describe and summarize the texts. The language used is simple but correct. The translation is good despite some grammatical errors.
D. Fair/sufficient (23-18): The work has sufficient knowledge, coherence, use of appropriate resources and quality of presentation to warrant a basic pass. The ability to analyze the texts is not wholly satisfactory. The work is very descriptive and does not fully address the issues raised by the question. The translation is not complete or is mostly incorrect.
E. Fail (below 18): The student demonstrates only a basic awareness of the course contents. The work is frequently confused and incoherent. Both the essay and the translation contain inaccuracies and major errors.
Contenuti
The course is taught in English and explores the main features of American postmodern literature through the study of selected novels and short stories from the 1960s to the present.
The first part of the course (36 hours), which is common to both the 6-credit and the 9-credit versions of the course, investigates some of the major features of postmodern writing, including metafiction, revisionist historical fiction, the interplay between high and popular culture, and the emergence of intermedial and transmedial forms. Through the combined analysis of literary texts and critical and theoretical readings by influential scholars—including Fredric Jameson, Ihab Hassan, Linda Hutcheon, and Jack Halberstam—the course enables students to develop the analytical skills necessary to understand how postmodern writers challenge traditional narratives and respond to cultural transformations in the United States.
The second part of the course (18 hours), taught by Professor Gennero, is reserved for students enrolled in module 13276 (9 CFU) and focuses on the development of the graphic novel in the twenty-first century. The reading list includes works by Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel and others.